Episode 12: Heart of Darkness

The U.S. News rankings of law schools are out! We wish they would go away. After follow-up on last week’s episode and a dip into viewer mail, we discuss what problems the rankings might be attempts to solve, how they are calculated, and the obvious problems with them. Joe reports that after the conversation, as after other discussions of the rankings, he felt like he needed a shower.
This show’s links:
Episode 11: Big Red Diesel (http://oralargument.org/11)
Typography in ten minutes (http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html) from Butterick’s Practical Typography (http://practicaltypography.com/index.html), see also his Summary of Key Rules (http://practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key-rules.html)
Ben Carter, Typography for Lawyers: One Space, Double Spacing, and Other Good Ideas (http://bluegrassroots.org/home/typography-for-lawyers-one-space-double-spacing-and-other-go.html)
The 2015 U.S. News and World Report Law School Rankings (http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings)
LSAC, Choosing a Law School (http://www.lsac.org/jd/choosing-a-law-school/customize-your-law-school-search)
The official U.S. News Rankings Methodology (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2014/03/10/methodology-2015-best-law-schools-rankings)
Brian Leiter, An Open Letter to Bob Morse of U.S. News (http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2010/03/an-open-lette-1.html)
Brian Leiter, The U.S. News Law School Rankings: A Guide for the Perplexed (http://www.leiterrankings.com/usnews/guide.shtml)
Theodore P. Seto, Understanding the U.S. News Law School Rankings (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=937017), in which Prof. Seto describes an attempt to reproduce the U.S. News model and conclusions about the rankings’ reliability, accuracy, and shortcomings
Paul Caron, 2015 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings vs. Overall Rankings (http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2014/03/2015-us-news-.html)
Robert L. Jones, A Longitudinal Analysis of the U.S. News. Law School Academic Reputation Scores Between 1998 and 2013 (http://law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/backissues/vol40/documents/jones.pdf)
Jeffrey Evans Stake, The Interplay Between Law School Rankings, Reputations, and Resource Allocation: Ways Rankings Mislead (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=700862)
Bill Henderson, Can Stanford Be No. 1 in the U.S. New Rankings? (http://www.elsblog.org/the_empirical_legal_studi/2010/07/can-stanford-be-1-in-the-us-news-rankings-the-data.html)

The U.S. News rankings of law schools are out! We wish they would go away. After follow-up on last week’s episode and a dip into viewer mail, we discuss what problems the rankings might be attempts to solve, how they are calculated, and the obvious problems with them. Joe reports that after the conversation, as after other discussions of the rankings, he felt like he needed a shower.

This show’s links:

Episode 11: Big Red Diesel
Typography in ten minutes from Butterick’s Practical Typography, see also his Summary of Key Rules
Ben Carter, Typography for Lawyers: One Space, Double Spacing, and Other Good Ideas
The 2015 U.S. News and World Report Law School Rankings
LSAC, Choosing a Law School
The official U.S. News Rankings Methodology
Brian Leiter, An Open Letter to Bob Morse of U.S. News
Brian Leiter, The U.S. News Law School Rankings: A Guide for the Perplexed
Theodore P. Seto, Understanding the U.S. News Law School Rankings, in which Prof. Seto describes an attempt to reproduce the U.S. News model and conclusions about the rankings’ reliability, accuracy, and shortcomings
Paul Caron, 2015 U.S. News Peer Reputation Rankings vs. Overall Rankings
Robert L. Jones, A Longitudinal Analysis of the U.S. News. Law School Academic Reputation Scores Between 1998 and 2013
Jeffrey Evans Stake, The Interplay Between Law School Rankings, Reputations, and Resource Allocation: Ways Rankings Mislead
Bill Henderson, Can Stanford Be No. 1 in the U.S. New Rankings?